Norfolk Sex Offender Captured in San Francisco After Three Years on the Run

Norfolk, VA - Thanks to a Crime Line tip, a convicted sex offender on the run from new sexual assault charges has been arrested on the opposite side of the country. Daniel Arnold Nickerson, 59, was arrested by the U.S. Marshals in San Francisco last night near a homeless shelter he had been residing at.

In September of 2013, Norfolk police charged and arrested Nickerson on two counts of aggravated sexual battery and one count of indecent liberties with a minor. Nickerson received a bond on these charges in March of 2014. When Nickerson failed to show for subsequent hearings in relation to these charges in June, 2014, a warrant was issued for his arrest, and it was believed he had gone on the run.

The investigation into Nickerson's whereabouts received a substantial boost when the Norfolk Crime Line received a tip earlier this year with information that Nickerson was possibly hiding amongst the homeless population in the San Francisco area. The U.S. Marshals in Norfolk contacted the San Francisco office of the U.S. Marshals-led Pacific Southwest Regional Fugitive Task Force with this information. The Marshals in San Francisco then began investigating Nickerson’s possible whereabouts in the Bay Area. The investigation came to an end last night when the Marshals task force located and arrested Nickerson in downtown San Francisco, outside of a homeless shelter.

Nickerson was also wanted by the Virginia State Police for failure to register as a sex offender. In 2005, Nickerson was convicted in Connecticut on a charge of risk of injury to a minor child, for an offense that occurred in 1989.

Nickerson is being held at the San Francisco County Jail awaiting return to Virginia.

The U.S. Marshals-led Fugitive Task Force consists of law enforcement officers from the U.S. Marshals, Chesapeake Sheriff’s Office, Newport News Police Department, Portsmouth Police Department and Norfolk Police Department. The main objective of the task force is to seek out and arrest violent offenders with outstanding federal and state warrants.

The U.S. Marshals Service, America’s first federal law enforcement agency, arrested more than 25,000 federal fugitives, 63,000 state and local fugitives and 11,000 sex offenders in 2016. Our investigative network and capabilities allow for the unique ability to track and apprehend any fugitive who attempts to evade police capture, anywhere in the country.